Winds of Hawi

Sunday, July 16, 2017

I mentioned last week that I had decided to rearrange my priorities, and my schedule. This week we see the first real evidence of that. I changed my original Saturday 12 mile long run to a swim + run brick, which means shortening the run. Pattie and I drive to Ala Moana, meet whoever else is joining us, swim at 7:00, and by 8:00 I am running home through Waikiki. I love it, except for dodging people along Kalakaua. Anyone who runs in a big city knows what I mean, only they don't have Waikiki Beach to sweeten the deal.

I have Tinman as a "B" race, which is why TrainingPeaks calls this week Build 2 week 1 instead of Race. The periodization is relative to the "A" races, in this case, Dick Evans. Here is the progression, starting from last week:

Young, fit athletes can do a four week cycle, three hard, one reduced volume. Older guys use a three week cycle, two hard, one reduced volume. Working with schedules is easier if week four is always a reduced volume week, so us three week folks eliminate week three.

Tinman came at an awkward time, so I manually edited the ATP to come up with this progression. That explains how we have a Build week with only 530 TSS planned -- it is a partial taper week. Not perfect, but nothing ever is.

Nothing knocks you out of your routine more than a national holiday coming mid-week. That is exactly what happened this week, with July 4th falling on Tuesday. Most of my co-workers took Monday off, as did I. And, I made good use of the time.

I want to get back to my upstairs bathroom renovation. The room has become a storage area, and the guest of honor has been my sitar, the one I bought back in 1968 in San Francisco for all of $140. A genuine Hiren Roy. The real deal. (Back then the exchange rate was really off balance, so my $140 -- including shipment -- was probably the equivalent of a six months wages in rupee.) At some point during its lengthy stay at East West Center it had a little Humpty Dumpty accident, quite common for sitars. Work in the bathroom could not continue until the sitar was taken care of, so I took to UPS and had it shipped to the best Indian instrument repairman on the West Coast, Scott Hackleman. It cost A LOT MORE that $140 to ship. But it's family, selected for me by my teacher, Nikhil Banerjee. Something to look forward to when I retire.

My family does not do much on July 4th, no matter what day of the week it falls on. This is the result of several gallant attempts to take the kids to watch fireworks shows put on at venues such as Ala Moana Beach Park, only to narrowly escape being blown to bits by illegal fireworks in the hands of frenzied children, and trapped in gridlock traffic for hours. No, thank you.

Besides having no special plans, I was absolutely sure the morning would be totally free, a perfect opportunity to do a mini-tri. For those of you lacking triathlon experience, a mini-tri involves doing all three activities -- swim, bike, run -- in a manner that simulates a race only with shorter distances or lower intensity. It is all about transitions. Not only clothing changes, but changes in muscle sensing and activation. My plan was to get up early, throw the bike and running gear in the back of the Outback, drive to Sans Souci Beach Park and swim 1,000 yards, drive back to Triangle Park, ride the Tinman route, then run for 15 min. What happened was, I woke up, slept a bit more, then decided that I was too tired to do any of that. So much for dedication.

Sunday's long ride was cut short by a failed CO2 dispenser. I flatted in Kailua doing Olomana Loops (see first pic), no big deal until I went to inflate the replacement tube. All the gas came spewing out of the dispenser, as though the valve was stuck open. I worked it over and over, it felt OK. On long rides I carry two tubes and two cartridges, so I had one more chance. Same result. I had to take the bus home.

I have been doing an intensive about of running these past three months, with the usual goal of getting faster. Well, the program I was following was only piling on mileage and doing nothing to improve pace, so I have given that up and am in the process of rearranging things. More to follow.

The reason my CTL line is so much higher than my annual training plan is due to the extra running. No that I am changing course it appears to be falling too low. Be patient, I have not finished planning the way to DEMRR.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

This week went really well until Saturday morning. It always takes about a mile to find my legs, but this time I felt as though I had no control. I kept going too fast, and sure enough my HR would climb up to tempo range and beyond. Meanwhile, my legs felt stiff and a little sore all over. Not my typical warm up. I was ready to quit and call it a day when I remembered that Thursday morning at strength training we did legs. Dorian did some new things designed to work deep tissue. I did not feel as sore or tired as I have in the past after a leg session, not until I tried to run Saturday. Then I remembered that Wednesday's run had been hard intervals up Diamond Head. And Tuesday's bike workout had been hard intervals up Kilauea. No wonder my legs felt broken!

I decided to keep going, but stop if any real pain showed up. No bad pain, just lots and lots of stiffness and overall soreness. I walked when I had to. My legs finally settled down around 2 1/2 miles in. The really good part was that I had plenty of energy to run the finish hard. This is supposed to be a fast finish run, but since the finish on my course is uphill I get the intensity but not the speed. My HR was touching zone 5 at the end. Funny thing is, it felt good. Confident.

Somewhere during the week I changed Sunday's bike from another two lap Hawaii Kai ride, the one I did last Sunday, for a longer, less intense ride designed to build endurance for the Dick Evans. I have been totally focused on hill climbing, so I decided it was time for a 50 mile ride to Kailua and back. That went really well. Plenty of energy. All that CTTS training showed. This week I do a bit more of the same sort of thing, getting to where just finishing 112 miles is not a challenge in itself.

The impact of not taking a week off after CTTS is obvious here. This week's planned workload is going to keep pushing that CTL line higher. This is not a bad thing as long as my body holds up. Maybe I should plan a little more rest before Tinman, even though it is just a B race.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

This was supposed to be a race report on my "race" up Haleakala. Well, sometimes life gets in the way. Often we can make a small adjustment and stay on track, but every once in awhile life deals a tougher hand, a situation that requires a complete change of course.

Pattie and I made it to Maui just fine. We had a small glitch getting into our vacation rental. No instructions. I assumed someone would meet us. Nobody around. I finally tried the front door. It was unlocked. Keys on the little table along with some instructions. A hold-over of those fruit stands we rode past on Frank Smith's Hana rides, no attendant, just the honor system. I guess that's Maui.

We awoke early to a call from Pattie's sister Lynne. Their 95 year old mom was in the hospital with an infection. Sepsis. It sounded serious, very possibly an end of life situation. I decided that the only course of action was to withdraw and get back to Oahu as soon as possible. I dropped off my number with the race director first thing Friday morning in case there was someone nearby on the waitlist. The race director, Donnie Arnoult, was nice enough to roll over my application fee, so I can do the race next year for free.

We didn't fly until the afternoon so we drove most of the CTTS course. It goes up, and up, and up. Just like Pineapple Hill and Tantalus, only forever. I recorded our drive on my Garmin 935, then stripped out everything except altitude and speed. The gap is where we missed a turn and had to double back - I cut that part out. The speed is car speed. I left in in to give an impression of the switchbacks. More like Tantalus than Pineapple Hill. We did not go all the way to the top, and yes, I forgot to stop my Garmin where we turned around. But you get the idea.

As I write this Sunday afternoon there is a glimmer of good news. Mom's white blood cell count has gone down, from very high to just high, so maybe the intravenous antibiotics are working. All we can do is wait.

You know that life gets in the way thing? Get this. With all the stress, Pattie has come down with a cold. She cannot enter the ward to visit her mom. Really!

Since I did not do the race I reverted to a typical weekend schedule. Did my long run Saturday and a solid bike this morning. Back on the P3 to get ready for Tinman.

That low point on the 7 day chart is Friday. My CTL ended up at 83.3, right about where I planned. The increase is from Saturday's run and today's bike. I wonder how much of a spike CTTS would have made.

TrainingPeaks automatically plots the A races on this summary PMC. You can see where I planned some recovery that matches the computed (suggested) amount, but after that, heading to DEMRR, the lines don't track. That is because I have not filled in all of my workouts. I need to get to that, soon.

Last week

ATP: 450 TSS (This does not include the race)
Planned: 808.6 (This does include my estimate for the race, a wild guess!)
Actual: 669.4

This Week

Week of 6/26
Focus: Tinman, DEMRR

ATP: Transition, no planned workouts, do whatever
(Actually this is not Transition because I did not race. More like a Build 1 week.)
Planned: 385

Sunday, June 18, 2017

For once I actually did less than planned. Which is a good thing considering this is taper time. Tuesday's bike got shortened because I thought I had the wrong workout loaded in my Garmin, but that gave me time to remove my pedals (Garmin Vector power meter pedals) and drop the Merlin off at Dorian's so he could install the compact crankset that finally arrived. I skipped Wednesday's run because it was raining hard and I did not feel like taking chances so close to my A race. Spin class was short because Dorian delivered the Merlin and I had to install the pedals, plus Pattie's knee was acting up; better to quit while you're ahead. Sunday's bike was shortened and I changed the route, from Tantalus to Diamond Head, due to threatening skies, and I needed time to work on the seat post.

Yeah, the seat post. That thing was a poor fit right from the start, umpteen years ago. The saddle height is perfect so there is no reason to mess with it before the race. Except for shipping the bike. I have a terrific Timbuk2 bike bag that I prefer to use because there is less chance of dings and a bent derailleur hanger. Actually, my Merlin does not have a separate hanger, it's built into the frame. Bend that and kiss the bike goodby. Anyway, the frame will not fit in the bag without removing the seat post. Which is standard practice. With the Cervelo P-3 I also had to remove the handlebar, but that was because of the awkward shape. For a road bike I should only have to rotate the bars sideways. I have tried everything, so as I write this I am awaiting a call from Dorian to bring the bike and we will wrestle it together. If we can't bust it loose I will have to pick up some large boxes from UPS and construct a bike box. Onr that I can break down at the airport so that it will fit inside our rental car.

About the new crankset. I ended up with an Ultegra 50/34. Everything else on the bike is Dura-Ace so of course I wanted that, but nobody had any. I guess they all got sucked up by the pro teams. Oh well, Ultegra is nothing to sneeze at and it is a lot less expensive. But talk about down to the wire. I put in my order in late March/early April. Finally arrived last week Monday. Less than two weeks before race day. Whew!

Back at the start of the year when I created my Annual Training Plan the TrainingPeaks plan maker came up with a target CTS of 80.7 for CTTS. I started off below plan, then went well above it -- too high, probably -- then a little drop down closer to plan. As of today my estimated CTS on race day is 89.1. In other words, I got there and even did a little better. That should be a confidence booster.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Managed to put in a good week of training. Wednesday's run workout was long and hard, and Saturday's run took a lot out of me. Enough that I shortened Sunday's planned ride.

For this week I need to back off a bit more, especially the running. Last week's TSS from the Annual Training Plan was 530; I did 773, but had I done everything as planned it would have been 959. Okay, so maybe I am getting it just right. Anyway, I am going to replace the Saturday long run (11mi, 220 TSS) with an old favorite, Kahala - Diamond Head Lookout (5mi, 110 TSS). That should give me better legs for whatever I decide to do Sunday.

My CTL is tracking nicely. Still above the ATP but following the plan profile. Higher is better as long as the body does not start breaking down. Let's take last week's "thing" as a hint.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

I have been very lucky this training cycle, good weather and good health allowed me to stay right on schedule. Alas, last week it fell apart. I had a great bike workout Tuesday morning, but when I got to the office I felt as though a bus has rolled over me. Immense fatigue, as if I had been walking non-stop all day. No fever, no runny nose. I didn't feel sick, so I assumed I had been training too hard. I ended up taking the rest of the week off. Lots of bed rest. My stomach was tender so I had to watch what I ate and only small portions. Eventually I decided it must be some kind of virus.

By Saturday I was well enough to attempt a ten mile run. Did it, a bit slower than normal. That afternoon after sitting on floor in a air conditioned room for five hours I ended up chilled so deep I was shivering uncontrollably for more than an hour.

This week begins Peak period -- also known as taper. The way I wrote my plan I have Peak week 1 and 2, then Race week. TrainingPeaks always starts weeks on Monday, so CTTS comes at the end of race week. So now we have 2 weeks until start of race week. Confused?

One way to look at this is I started Peak a week early. I must avoid the temptation to squeeze in every possible workout to make up for the lost time. The only significant loss was today's long Tantalus ride. I changed Tuesday's hill work to include a better high intensity workout, one that should produce a good muscle response without as much fatigue. I left Sunday open. The idea is to do a lap of Tantalus and see how I feel. I should be able to do two, the only question is whether or not I feel like doing three.

Sunday after is Father's Day. I penciled in a Pineapple Hill ride, focused more or endurance than intensity, but I need to work it out with Pattie. Sometimes Tantalus is a bit too steep.

My weekly CTS scores show a dramatic drop in training. No surprise here. The good news is that as long as I stick to my plan I will hit my goal for CTTS.

Last week

ATP: 760 TSS

The planned and actuals for last week have little meaning due to my illness. Tuesday morning I got in my last good ride, and Saturday morning I did a ten mile run.